I only recently started using this one but it’s worked well for me. I adapted it from Feeling Good which seems to be well-regarded around here. The idea is to mentally note, or better yet write down, how you expect to feel after doing a task, or obeying a time-wasting compulsion. You will begin to notice patterns, such as the following: you expect some task to be exceedingly painful and boring, make a note of that expectation, finally get around to doing it, and note how you actually felt about it. For myself, I usually find that I get a lot more satisfaction out of even menial tasks than I expect to a priori.
Conversely, note before indulging in a compulsion (for me, checking Facebook or lesswrong on my phone) how much enjoyment you expect to get out of it, and note how much enjoyment you actually got out of it. This surprisingly simple technique has significantly curtailed my dicking-around-on-the-Internet time because I am able to viscerally understand that I won’t a actually get anything out of it, that I won’t enjoy it any more than I would enjoy practically anything else.
When I first started working today, it was more boring and difficult than I expected. It seemed to get better after an hour or so. That is, I stopped working after an hour or so, but I’ve been working on-and-off since then without having nearly as much trouble. It’s not that I haven’t been working continuously. I was fighting impulses to stop from seconds after I started working before. I think it’s just that I was less used to working.
Also, I’ve very much noted that, when my productivity is lowest, I don’t get much enjoyment out of anything. At that point, I don’t feel like I can do anything productive at all.
I only recently started using this one but it’s worked well for me. I adapted it from Feeling Good which seems to be well-regarded around here. The idea is to mentally note, or better yet write down, how you expect to feel after doing a task, or obeying a time-wasting compulsion. You will begin to notice patterns, such as the following: you expect some task to be exceedingly painful and boring, make a note of that expectation, finally get around to doing it, and note how you actually felt about it. For myself, I usually find that I get a lot more satisfaction out of even menial tasks than I expect to a priori.
Conversely, note before indulging in a compulsion (for me, checking Facebook or lesswrong on my phone) how much enjoyment you expect to get out of it, and note how much enjoyment you actually got out of it. This surprisingly simple technique has significantly curtailed my dicking-around-on-the-Internet time because I am able to viscerally understand that I won’t a actually get anything out of it, that I won’t enjoy it any more than I would enjoy practically anything else.
When I first started working today, it was more boring and difficult than I expected. It seemed to get better after an hour or so. That is, I stopped working after an hour or so, but I’ve been working on-and-off since then without having nearly as much trouble. It’s not that I haven’t been working continuously. I was fighting impulses to stop from seconds after I started working before. I think it’s just that I was less used to working.
Also, I’ve very much noted that, when my productivity is lowest, I don’t get much enjoyment out of anything. At that point, I don’t feel like I can do anything productive at all.